Tony Blair has likened David Cameron’s position on the European Union to a man
holding a gun to his own head.

The former prime minister compared Mr Cameron’s negotiating strategy to a scene in Blazing Saddles, the satirical Western comedy directed by Mel Brooks, where a character threatens to shoot himself in the head.

Mr Blair, who was speaking from Davos in Switzerland, also said it was “pretty mad” to suggest that Britain could potentially leave the EU.

“If you believe as I believe that for Britain to separate itself in the 20th Century from the largest political union, the biggest business market in the world on our doorstep – if you believe that is a pretty mad thing for a country to do then of course you can argue a case for reform and change in Europe,” Mr Blair said on BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme.

“But don’t argue it and say that if we don’t get our way we are going to leave the European Union all together.”

Mr Blair said that by offering the British people an in-out referendum on the European Union, the Prime Minister is risking the UK’s economic future.